I rarely focus my shows content on specific events, however, there are times when events are so overwhelming and the implications are so broad that they cannot be ignored. The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary that took place on Friday, December 14 is one of those events. As uncomfortable, difficult and distressing as it may be to look at the situation from a critical standpoint, we must or we as a society will continue to make the same terrible mistakes that lead up to and result in tragedies like this.

Understanding Mass Murder

These scenarios can be overwhelming and can if we allow them to drive all of our preparedness training

That would be an error

We need to think about the most likely events to occur

Train for those events and then

expand our training as resources become available

Impossible to understand for sane individuals

Best we can hope to do is find commonalities

Events are not spontaneous

Others aware of the danger signs

Violence towards self

Violence towards others

Psychological issues

BS Excuses and myths

bullying

digital violence

Encourage you to act if you see these common factors manifesting themselves

Many similar situations have been stopped due to vigilance close to the potential actors

Much of this is out of our control

By far, prevention is out of my expertise

We are sure to be mired in many debates for the next ? years

Again, out of our control

I can’t tell you how to keep the next event from happening

My goal lies in helping you understand what you can do when you find yourself in the middle of one of these events.

So, What Is In Our Control When it Comes to Mass Murder?

Accept that it will happen to you!

I use the word it a lot. It is a generic word, I use it on purpose because it can mean whatever you need it to mean. Yes it can mean an Active Murder Scenario at the mall, but it is many other things as well. An earth quake, a weather related disaster, a medical emergency, a home invasion, a fire, an armed robbery, an automobile accident. The list of it goes on.

Look at your life

Determine the top it

Avoid and prevent it if you can

Prepare for dealing with it if P&A fail

This all means that you prepare.

Have a Plan For the Big “ITs”

When you identify what you need to be prepared to deal with and you begin to prepare to deal with it you must honestly assess where you are at in your preparedness and have a plan that realistically implements your ability to deal with the situation.

We must strike a balance between our plan and our training. We must plan to execute our training and train to execute our plan. As our training exceeds our plan revise that plan to reflect an increase in skills. As our plan exceeds our training, shore up your weak links and drive forward.

Our plan must fit the context of the situation:

In the I.C.E. Training Introduction to Defensive Handgun course we teach a plan to deal with an imminent home invasion with a potential lethal threat that equally applies to the Active Murderer situation that we are so focused on.

Evade

Barricade/Hide

Arm

Contact

Respond Appropriately

Many are calling for teacher’s to be armed

legally

Politically

Ethically this may be problematic

It would be unrealistic to plan for most teachers deploying a firearm from a concealed holster

It would however be realistic for an educator to train to deploy a dropped weapon from the scene

Don’t hyper focus on the tools instead allow for contextual tools and focus on action

Any action taken to interrupt the murderers actions while you are a target increase your odds of survival

Any action taken while others are a target increases the others survival

Any action taken by multiple individuals is likely to overwhelm the attacker and force them to break off the attack, or allow the attack to be broken off.

Act and act decisively

Be Responsible for Your Own Safety and for the safety of your family!

Help your family to understand that violence it the solution to some problems

Help your family to understand how to figure it out

Have a plan!

You need to be responsible for your safety because:

You are there in the middle of it and are most able to respond due to your proximity

There will be a delay in others coming to your aid

Ultimately you have to live with the consequences of any situation that you are involved in.